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OBJECTIVE Electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to advance the quality of care, but studies have shown mixed results. The authors sought to examine the extent of EHR usage and how the quality of care delivered in ambulatory care practices varied according to duration of EHR availability. METHODS The study linked two data sources: a statewide survey of physicians' adoption and use of EHR and claims data reflecting quality [...]

Emergency department crowding threatens quality and access to health care, and a method of accurately forecasting near-future crowding should enable novel ways to alleviate the problem. The authors sought to implement and validate the previously developed ForecastED discrete event simulation for real-time forecasting of emergency department crowding.

The use of electronic case report forms (CRF) to gather data in randomized clinical trials has grown to progressively replace paper-based forms. Computerized form designs must ensure the same data quality expected of paper CRF, by following Good Clinical Practice rules. Electronic data capture (EDC) tools must also comply with applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. Here the authors focus on the development of computerized systems for clinical trials implementing FDA [...]

Identify clinical factors that modulate the risk of progression to COPD among asthma patients using data extracted from electronic medical records.

To use the semantic and structural properties in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus to characterize and discover potential relationships.

The Canadian Health Outcomes for Better Information and Care (C-HOBIC) project introduced systematic use of standardized clinical nursing terminology for patient assessments. Implemented so far in three Canadian provinces, C-HOBIC comprises an innovative model for large-scale capture of standardized nursing-sensitive clinical outcomes data within electronic health records (EHRs). To support this activity, nursing assessment and outcomes concepts were mapped to the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP(R)). By comparing serial [...]

Clinical Research Informatics, an emerging sub-domain of Biomedical Informatics, is currently not well defined. A formal description of CRI including major challenges and opportunities is needed to direct progress in the field.

The purpose of this study is to reassess the projected rate of Electronic Health Record (EHR) diffusion and examine how the federal government's efforts to promote the use of EHR technology have influenced physicians' willingness to adopt such systems. The study recreates and extends the analyses conducted by Ford et al. (1) The two periods examined come before and after the U.S. Federal Government's concerted activity to promote EHR adoption.

The authors implemented what is possibly the first secure messaging system in a VA Medical Center. Since reimbursement for secure messaging is not of great concern and clinical data systems are fully computerized, several evaluation strategies were used to assess clinical adoption. To address known concerns of clinicians, the authors analyzed secure messaging use and performed a content analysis. Message volumes were low and content analysis demonstrated that messages were [...]